Movavi Mac Cleaner

How to Delete iMessage on Mac and Solve Other Problems

Used by millions of people around the world, iMessage is the instant messaging application developed by Apple that is included with OS X. But, as with many other apps, iMessage is linked to certain problems that need some tweaking to work more effectively. You might want to turn off constant app notifications, remove specific messages from chats, delete an entire chat history, disable iMessage, or even get rid of the app completely. However, uninstalling built-in apps can be tricky – the Mac OS won’t let you delete iMessage by dragging its icon to the Trash as you would with other apps.

In this article, we’ll talk about different ways of solving iMessage problems as well as ways of deleting the app permanently.

Turning Off iMessage Notifications

If you find the constant notifications popping up in iMessage distracting, you can turn them off as follows.

In the upper left-hand corner of the menu bar, click the Apple logo.

Select System Preferences.

In the window that opens, click Notifications.

Choose Messages.

Click None below the Messages alert style.

Removing Messages on Mac

To delete specific messages in iMessage on Mac, follow the steps below.

Open iMessage on your Mac.

Locate the thread from which you want to delete a message.

Click the message once so it’s highlighted in a darker shade than the other messages.

Right-click the message to open a context menu.

Select Delete. The message will be removed.

Deleting the iMessage Chat History

To remove an iMessage thread, do the following.

Run iMessage on your Mac.

In the menu bar, select Preference of Message.

Open the General tab and uncheck the Save history when conversations are closed box. The next time you open the app, the earlier chats will not appear.

You can also delete the entire iMessage chat history.

Exit out of iMessage if it’s open.

Open Finder and press Command + Shift + G.

In the Go to Folder dialog box that opens, enter ~/Library/Messages/.

In the Messages directory, select the chat files named chat.db, chat.db-shm, and chat.db-wal and delete them.

Empty the Trash.

Disabling the iMessage App on Mac

If you have several Apple devices, you may find that incoming messages are not always delivered to your new device. You can solve this problem by disabling the app on your devices. To disable it on your Mac:

In the menu bar, go to Messages > Preferences.

Open the Accounts tab and choose your iMessage account.

Uncheck the box next to your phone number.

Uncheck the Enable this account box.

Using a Special Tool to Remove iMessage from Mac

If you’d like to change to a different messaging app, you’ll probably have a hard time uninstalling iMessage. The system simply won’t let you do it manually, since it’s a standard built-in application. What you need is an iMessage removal tool like Movavi Mac Cleaner.

Download the program and follow the steps below to learn how to get rid of iMessage on a Mac in a couple of clicks.*

1. Install the iMessage Remover

2. Scan Your System

On the first launch, Movavi Mac Cleaner will automatically scan your system for junk files. If you’d like to delete these, click Start Cleaning. Otherwise, just move on to the step below.

3. Uninstall User Applications

On the left-hand side, open the menu Uninstaller and click OS X Apps. Find the iMessage icon in the list, check the appropriate box, and click Remove. Yes, it’s that easy!

We hope this article has been helpful in solving most of the problems you may face when using iMessage. When nothing else works, program removal is probably your best option. Movavi Mac Cleaner will help you easily delete iMessage, leaving no files behind.

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